Prisoner
by Shimmershot
Summary: Tai's been kidnapped. Everything suddenly just got a lot more real. It's not just the digital world they have to worry about. Where do you start looking for your best friend when he's seemingly vanished without a trace?   Rating may go up down the road .
1. Chapter 1

Tai cringed, cautiously opening his eyes. It was dark, but still, the lighting seemed to hurt his eyes. Did that make sense? His head was pounding. _'Where am I?'_ the feel of the "ground" beneath him was enough to tell him he wasn't home... or at a friends. The carpeting was to coarse, and uncushioned. His arms felt like lead and his back was feeling like his head. _'Ok, pull it together. What's the last thing I was doing?'_ He could visualize the soccer field, and his team practicing drills... _'Well that tells me a lot... What happened?'_

Squinting, he glanced around. Well, that explained why his back hurt. He was curled in a ball. He couldn't move his arms, because he couldn't feel them. His hands were behind him, and the angle had cut off his circulation. Though he could feel a pressure on both of his wrists that didn't bode well. Now that he was more aware, he could feel something around his neck. It was uncomfortable, and worrying, but he could breath normally...

He was either in the smallest room ever (though it really did feel like a box), or he was in a... Ochre eyes widened as everything registered. He'd been walking home from soccer practice with Koromon! Now, he was apparently riding first class in the trunk of some kind of car? Strange as it was for him to understand, he could hear the sound of road coming from somewhere under him, and now that he looked, he could see the tail light housings. "What?" his voice was raspy and nothing more than a whisper, but he could still imagine his shock bleeding into the word.

"Koro... mon... are you ok?" Whatever was around his neck dug in painfully at every word he spoke. He tried to shift, and he gasped at the pain that shot down his spine. How long had he been in this awkward position? His whole body was stiff! "Koromon, are you here?" He hoped Koromon wasn't... but at the same time, he hoped his partner could get him free.

The bump took him by surprise. Hurt like Hell too. _'Who knew a speed bump could cause so much pain?'_ he grouched to himself, hissing out loud. _'Wait... a speed bump means slowing down... which usually means we're in a parking lot and about to stop...'_ He forced himself to move, working out the stiffness as best he could in the limited space he had to work in. He wouldn't be stuck cornered simply because of a bad cramp. Without his hands to support him, the plan that raced through his head would be hard...

Didn't stop him from finding his footing the second he heard the sound of the trunk release. He pushed the lid with his shoulder as he stood, jumped down from the car (far less gracefully than he'd hoped), and ran. The world spun, and his vision was blurry. He suddenly had a new found respect for one of his soccer drills... coach pulled it out only once in a while, but it helped him find his balance now. Who knew an exercise that required the use of a bat, leaning over said bat with one eye as close to it as possible, running around it in a ridiculous circle several times and running to the starting point could be so useful?

He recognized the area. Mostly anyway. He knew the park... it was real close to where he lived. He'd been here recently with Hikari on a random walk they'd taken together. He was here with Sora before that, sometime in the last year... but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out which direction he needed to go to find safety. Home or otherwise... and there was no one around. It was dark outside, and the moon was the only source of light. _'Just keep running...'_ he told himself, _'Someone'll help. They have too. Someone will notice I'm not running for the hell of it... I'm still in my school uniform! How could they not realize? I need help, and I don't care how stupid I may seem... I know they're following me, someone please help!' _

"Unh!" he cursed himself for tripping. He cursed when he couldn't find his footing again. He cursed as he felt hands grab him roughly around his arms and pull him up. He felt his heart stop as he got a good look at the person holding him. Uniforms. They were cops.

The predatory smile didn't seem like one a cop would wear. The one on his right leaned down, and whispered closely in his ear, "Bad move kiddo." The other cop was still smiling evilly. "Shouldn't have taken off like that. All we wanted was to talk." For the second time in a row, Taichi felt the cold sting of a needle at his neck, and all hope he had died. No one would save him. He wouldn't have another chance like that. He was a prisoner.

He shivered in true fear in that moment, as everything slid out of focus further.

**The drill I wrote of was an actual drill we had in ROTC PT once. It was hard as all heck to run straight, because it frags with your center of gravity and you tend to pull off in the direction you were spinning when you start running back to the start point.2) The trunk thing was inspired by the new Hawaii Five-0 TV series.**

**This is the beginning of a my newest story. I think it's going to have a mystery genre (and perhaps I'll try my luck with romance later on), if only because of this opening. I haven't forgotten about _Forgotten_, I swear. I am ultimately stuck on it. So, I've switched away from Transformers for a while to try my hand at Digimon.**

**Hope you all had a fantastic New Year! =) ~ Shimmershot**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Let's go back in time a few hours…**_

"Ready to go home Koromon?"

"Sure thing Tai," the pink in-training digimon replied drowsily. Tai grinned at him, pulling his bag over his shoulder before picking up his partner. Koromon felt completely at ease as Tai walked, and the lull of his gait was putting him to sleep.

The teen hummed as he went, occasionally smiling down. Koromon wasn't quite asleep, but it sure seemed like it. All in all, it was rather endearing. Normally _Agumon_ was the one who looked after _Tai_, but now, he had a chance to do the opposite. Sure, Koromon was still a force to be reckoned with, but…

"Just don't drool on me, ok buddy? Mom just cleaned my uniform." Tai joked, looking up again. Soccer had run late, and it was starting to get dark. The sunset was beginning to fade. It had been awesome, kicking a goal with the fiery backdrop. If it had been a game, it would have been the perfect final goal.

Continuing his humming, he kept walking, dodging the few people that were still out and about. He hated the walk home these days. It was so quiet. And even though he held his partner in his arms, this was probably the loneliest stretch of the walk home. He could never shake that dark feeling of being alone.

Visions of tennis gear and a red headed teen with burning amber eyes filled his mind's eye, and he tried to keep his sigh internal.

He felt like he'd gone through a break up or something. But he didn't even have that as an excuse. Sora was never his to begin with. But now that she never walked home with him anymore, he couldn't help the idea. She suddenly started avoiding him, and it stung a lot more than he wanted to admit. He missed their walk home. And it was _their_ walk home. Only they ever walked this way… the others would branch off by now.

He missed their talks. They would talk about anything and everything. The events of their day, family stuff, and later on, even Matt and her relationship. They would joke, chat, or just stay silent. Now, Matt picked her up from tennis practice, or she was always busy. Taichi shook his head, trying to clear the dark thoughts from his mind. She was gone, and he had no room to complain. Time to move on.

"Why can't girls be easier to understand?" he whispered, trying not to disturb Koromon. Even Kari wasn't making sense any more. They had gotten into an argument last night over some guy his sister was apparently going to see a movie with tomorrow. She hadn't spoken to him all day. Before soccer, he'd texted his apology to her, but he was fairly certain she was still ignoring him.

His sister, who cared more about everyone else around her except for her, was truly mad at him for once. He hated it. His hand played with the ring around his thumb as he cursed to himself. Everything about that just didn't sound right, and he was living it!

He was tempted to pull his phone out and see if she'd miraculously forgiven him. But he hadn't felt his phone buzz since he looked at it last, and he didn't really want to stoop and try to fish it out of his sock while holding a sleeping Koromon. His partner wasn't as light as he looked after all, and he didn't want to wake him up.

All thoughts went out the window a moment later. There was a sharp sting at the base of his shoulder, and he felt like he was hit by a car. He felt his bag slip off of his shoulder, and Koromon was suddenly gone from his arms. Hands grabbed at him, and time suddenly snapped back into place, and he struggled for all he was worth.

Four people. There were two pulling him toward what looked like an SUV, one was getting in the driver side, and the largest was back a ways. "K… Koro…" Taichi tried calling out to his partner, but everything suddenly went black, and he felt conscious thought leave him completely.

Koromon shivered, watching the car disappear down the road. He'd been completely useless right there. _'What just… happened?'_ Taichi was gone… and he had no idea what to do.

His eyes had snapped open when Tai gasped, and he'd seen the needle in his arm. The people had yanked Koromon from Tai's hold, and he couldn't focus when he felt himself connect with a wall at a very fast pace. Another few hits rained down on him, and when it stopped, he opened his eyes to see the car was gone. And so was Tai.

"I'm sorry Taichi!" he sobbed, rocking back and forth. Why hadn't he Digivolved. He hadn't even thought about it at that moment. He should have done something! Anything. He should have attacked at the very least! His partner was in trouble and all he'd done was to be thrown around like a rag doll! He'd been so helpless!

He had to get to someone. They would know how to find him.

A glimmer of familiar streamline silver caught his attention, and he felt all hope plummet. "Tai's Digivice…" Hopping over, he examined the gadget carefully. "Maybe… maybe it's not his! Maybe one of the others dropped it earlier or something!" he knew it wasn't so. Matt drove now, and Sora was the only one who would walk this far, and she'd stopped walking months ago.

Devastated, Koromon snatched it in his mouth and hopped in the direction of the closest Digidestined's home.

**A/N : Short. We'll show the others starting next chapter. Hope you enjoy!**


	3. Chapter 3

This was certainly not going to end well.

"Gabumon, hold this for me, will ya?"

"Sure. Oh!" the wolf digimon faltered, not expecting the weight of the shelf that was passed down to him. Hiroaki, Matt's father, was high up on a ladder doing… something… to the book case.

Matt chuckled. He was on the other side of the ladder making sure his dad wasn't going to topple over if he over rotated. "Smooth Gabs…" he jibed, his partner's blush deepening.

_**BANG**_

The three residents of the Ishida house shared a glance. That wasn't a sound any of them had made…

_**WHAM**_

Gabumon and Matt stared toward the entryway as Hiroaki climbed down. The teen quirked a brow as his partner gave a sniff. None of them were expecting company… Takeru would have called before heading over, and the others would have texted at least…

_**BAM**_

The wolf digimon stepped closer to the door, sniffing again cautiously. Gabumon never opened the door for anyone. They had come to that agreement fairly unanimously early on. No one would understand why the _creature_ was even able to open the door by himself… plus the idea that people generally didn't accept the idea of Digimon (despite the few incidents they'd had in spectacular public hot spots).

But the Rookie didn't think twice about it now. To Mr. Ishida's chagrin and Yamato's shock, he threw the door open after unlatching the locks in record speed (considering on lock was up toward the top of the door, it was easy to understand the surprise on that one).

Gabumon smelled blood. And fear. It was faint, but it was enough to set his fur on end. Blood was cause for concern when there was a random knocking at the door (which sounded pretty desperate at that). But the familiarity of the scent was what finally hit him.

Both humans blinked at the empty spans that greeted them, before their eyes traveled downward in unison. Koromon was panting, stationed in the doorway. The pink ball was shaking, and all three of the household could plainly see what looked like a bruise covering one side of his face. More disturbing was the blood spatter, light though it was, that covered one of the long ribbon like ears.

"Koromon, what happened?" Matt exclaimed, rushing over and stooping. His blue eyes scanned the outside, hoping to see Tai nearby to explain why his partner looked so distressed. No such luck. The teen gently pulled the tiny Digimon into his arms and stood so that his partner could close the door. "Dad, can you get some damp rags?"

"Already ahead of you Matt," his dad called from the bathroom.

Koromon shifted in Matt's hold and spat some object onto the couch. Matt stared wide-eyed at it, knowing full well what the silver device was. "Did… did Tai… do this to you?" that didn't seem right… Taichi would never hurt his partner… not on purpose. But… Koromon by himself with Tai's Digivice wasn't a normal sight, especially with the little In-Training injured as he was.

"No!" even his voice shook. "Tai was… he was taken. I failed. We have to help him!" Having not expected that, Matt and Gabumon blinked. "I couldn't… I was asleep and those people just appeared… I couldn't digivolve… They were gone before I even know what happened. I failed Tai…"

"You didn't-"

"Yes I did!" the Digimon of Courage was more distraught than either Matt or Gabumon had thought possible for him. "Those people drugged him and took him away and all I could do was get thrown into a wall!" Tears were falling unhindered from crimson eyes.

"I'll call the cops," Matt said, fishing his phone from his pocket. It vanished from his hand a split second later. "Dad?" Hiroaki had a thoughtful expression, and he held Matt's phone in front of him as if he were contemplating it.

"We do need to call the cops." Blue eyes glittered like ice. "But we need to do this right. Koromon, was there anything else? Do you know what they looked like?"

"Uh… they were all big… something covered their faces… they didn't say anything either." Koromon's brow furrowed as he thought, a cute action under any other circumstances. "Tai's bag is still there I think… They didn't take it with them, and Tai's Digivice was next to it. And they drove a really big black car."

"What kind? Did you get the license plate?" Matt shot his dad an odd look. Koromon seemed to shrink in on himself even more.

"I don't know… what's a license plate? How would I get it?" even Gabumon looked a bit confused at Hiroaki's question. They'd never needed to know what that was…. Of course Koromon wouldn't think to look for it.

The father ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. "Tai's stuff is still there? Do you know where it happened?"

To this, Koromon could answer, and his determination returned full force. "Yeah, I can show you! It wasn't far… We were walking home from soccer practice." He jumped off the couch, snatching up the forgotten device beforehand, not wanting to leave it behind.

Matt glanced at his father, already standing to move to the door. Receiving no nod or word otherwise, the teen once more pulled Koromon into his arms and began walking. Hiroaki followed soundlessly, still holding Matt's phone. "Here, Koromon, how about I hold on to Tai's Digivice? You probably can't talk with that in your mouth, and we need you to give directions."

Matt almost felt bad for suggesting it. Red eyes took on an even sadder glint, and the long ears drooped further than before as the pink coloring seemed to pale. But the device was in his hand a moment later. "Don't drop it…" Koromon tried to hide it, but Matt could feel him shiver as he spoke. Dropping the Digivice would probably forever be a fear of his from now on.

As they set out, Matt only just began to realize, it would probably become one of his fears as well.


End file.
